4 out of 5

Label: Relapse

Produced by: Jonathan Nuñez

I think I was aware of Torche around the time of Meanderthal – being a Hydra Head collector at that point – and owned the album but, as has sometimes happened with my confusion between What I Deem “Cool” and What I Deem “Good,” and my lovable tendency to automatically assume the latter is less possible the more the former becomes commonly accepted, since the band was getting traction with that disc… it went unlistened to.

Persisting in this nonsensical approach to collecting, I would kind of peripherally believe that I’d eventually get over it and like Torche, because their pitch as a kind of poppy sludge band sounded a-okay to me, and so I kept buying release – and not listening to them – as they came out.

So here I sit, essentially going through the majority of their discography, and realizing that maybe my initial wariness had some other basis besides being contrary, as I’ve very much been underimpressed (and sometimes annoyed) by most of their work. And now I’ve arrived at the current (as of 2025) conclusion of their albums, with ‘Admission.’ Which still underimpresses me, with its empty lyrics, and always-in-the-middle range, and cleaned up sound, and reliance on predictable drops and hooks, but this is also totally the most fully realized edition of the band, as close to radio friendly as stoner rock could ever get, and thus very accessible and catchy. Bands of all stripes can cross the line into cookie cutter and edge out their cookie cutter competition by dialing it in, and finding some special sauce to differentiate themselves; besides, ironically, the album’s title track, Admission is all dialed in in that regard, with guitarist Jonathan Nuñez tapping in to that Kurt Ballou energy from Meanderthal to give us some of the fuzziest, heaviest low end Torche has delivered since, put to good use to really nail the climaxes of many songs. Even Admission (the song) isn’t bad, it’s just done with nearly zero nodding to sludge or metal, and highlights the general (to me) emptiness of the Torche sound with a kind of straight ahead sincerity that calls to mind the tedium I experienced on most former releases. Surrounding that track are 10 very solid singles, built around light melodies that are tied to strong hooks, all boiled down to make their points and get out without doing unnecessary dress-up, and then given some extra bite with fuzz-forward production.